


In The Light Of The Fire

by Justafewthingstosay



Series: Kisses to heal your soul [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Forehead kisses technically, I keep thinking about how boring it must be on a cart all day, I wrote a thing about it, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other, SO, Setting up Camp, Tiny hut spell, also Caleb loves Molly but doesn't actually understand it yet, but neither of them know it, cause they dumb, this is literally just a small introspective thing, widomauk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24170635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justafewthingstosay/pseuds/Justafewthingstosay
Summary: Sleep never comes easy to Caleb, he didn't know that Molly had the same issue.
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Series: Kisses to heal your soul [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608187
Comments: 2
Kudos: 81





	In The Light Of The Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fafsernir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fafsernir/gifts).



They had been travelling for around two days now. The way from one town to the next had slowly started to stretch itself and Caleb was more grateful than ever that they had the cart and horses. 

But even with the accelerated travelling speed, it was too much time that he had to fill, he could only reread his spells so often and the copy of Tusk Love that they had bought in Zadash was already ingrained in his brain from rereading it. It wasn’t even really good, but it was better than being alone with his thoughts. 

Sadly, that was exactly what he was right now, the slow purring of Frumpkin in his lap, while he sat in the back of the cart with the others. Fjord and Jester were at the front of the cart, making sure that they were going the right direction and just generally keeping a lookout. The rest of them were stuck cramped together on the small wooden space that was the back of the cart.    
  
Beau was sitting next to him, her head tilted back while she snored softly. She had been complaining about being tired all day and Caleb had tried to block out her and Molly’s bickering. He had just listened to their voices without actually paying attention to what was being said. 

  
It was always the same with those two anyway. Bickering, insults and all those things, but there was something behind those words, a fondness of some kind. A friendship hidden under it all. 

On the topic of the tiefling Caleb looked at him. He was studying his cards intently, sometimes shuffling them, putting them back into his pockets, looking around for a while until his boredom got the better of him and he pulled the cards out again. Only to shuffle them, split the deck and shuffle them again. 

Caleb watched him do that for a while until he heard cluttering from his right side and his gaze was shifted towards Nott, who had dumped her pile of buttons onto the floor of the cart and started organising them. Why? He didn’t know, she was going to put all of them into the same bag again anyway, but he thought it might be the same reason why Molly had been shuffling the cards, or why Caleb could recite every word of Tusk Love. Boredom held them all in its firm grasp, while the raindrops hit the leather tarp over their heads and the wind shook the sides. A distorted song of nature, trying to make it as disgusting as possible for them all to go on, but a song nonetheless.    
  
It wasn’t comfortable, at all, but Caleb was happy that he wasn’t the one that had to actually sit in front, because it was normal that it was there that you would actually feel the wind and the rain. Back here they at least had decent protection from it. 

He didn’t want to imagine how bad it must be for Jester and Fjord in front. He also didn’t have to for super long, as Jester turned around, her usual grin wiped off her face by the rain. “We should stop, the horses are getting tired and it’s really not that nice out.” 

The ones in the back just nodded. At least it wasn’t actually that cold, it was actually quite warm, but it was just uncomfortable. So they took off the road and looked for a clearing accessible and big enough for them to set up camp. With Jester and Fjord working in the front they found it soon enough and before Caleb knew, he was shaking Beau awake to get her to stand in his circle with the others so that he could cast Tiny Hut. 

The spell only took a minute to cast, but that was enough time for all of them to become absolutely drenched. Beau looked the most miserable through all of it, her hair coming loose from her bun and sticking to her face, Nott was trying to hide as much of her face in her hood as she possibly could and Caleb had to admit that she looked adorable.   
  
Jester and Fjord had both already been drenched before they had gotten out of the cart, so they let out the biggest sigh when the rain above their heads stopped, as the thin but strong layer of evocation magic stopped the rain from hitting them. 

Caleb had looked at everyone while casting the spell, except for the person right across from him. 

Mollymauk.    
  
He could feel the tieflings eyes on him during the entire spell and he was worried of catching his eye when he looked up, he was scared of seeing something in them that he might have to think about, so he just didn’t look up. Kept his eyes moving, tracing his line of friends. He was lucky to have them, he knew that and he was glad that he could finally protect them. That he could make the need for nightly watches obsolete, that he could make sure that they would be safe.    
  
Because that was really what he wanted. To keep them safe. 

He had never expected himself to care this much about this ragtag group of people, but here he was. HIdden under the magic that had shaped his entire life. That he had sacrificed so much for.    
  
It all lead him here. 

He was still standing awkwardly in the middle of them all when the others started shedding their armour. He shouldn’t have been watching, it was impolite and not the thing to do, but when Molly hat started to shed his shirt and the vast expanse of purple, wet skin became visible, Caleb couldn’t do anything but look at the scars. The faint lighter lines stretching over the toned abdomen of his travel companion. Questions kept popping into his head, how many of those scars were from his time as Lucien and how many were from his time as Molly? Did they hurt sometimes? That was never something he really considered. Molly hurt himself, actively destroyed his, objectively gorgeous body to protect them, to make sure that they weren’t as hurt as they could be and Caleb’s mind supplied the question of how many of those scars were scars that were supposed to be littered on his skin? How many of those scars had his name written all other them? How many of those were his fault? 

He didn’t notice that he had been staring until he heard a chuckle and a soft “Caleb? You alright?”    
  
To say that it started him was an understatement, he visibly flinched away from the voice that he noticed belonged to Beau, just like the hand that was hovering over his shoulder, not quite touching, but close enough to steady in case something happened. She had made a habit of being Caleb’s structure of support. Not through kind words, or through loving touches, but he could tell that she cared. That she worried and he gave her a careful smile in retaliation.    
  
“I’m alright, Beauregard, just got lost in my head,” he quickly lied and that was when he noticed that the chuckle that he had heard hadn’t been Beau. It had been that purple tiefling that had gotten him into this awkward situation in the first place. He risked a quick look towards the other and saw him standing close to Nott, who was actively trying to hide a button that she obviously took from one of his shirts while he wasn’t looking. Caleb admired the carefree helpfulness the tiefling spread wherever he went. No matter whom or what, he had the feeling that Molly always had a compliment on his lips or gold in his fingers for people. He just knew how to make people happy. He knew how to make Caleb happy and Caleb would have been lying if he said that that fact didn’t terrify him to his core. 

The wizard took his eyes away as Fjord and Jester passed through the barrier into the hut, carrying a wide selection of wood and sticks to make a small bonfire in the hut. Caleb could control the light inside the hut and it would keep them dry, but the fire would be nice to dry their wet clothes and actually sleep comfortably. 

He lit the fire with a spell and everyone seemed to physically exhale at the prospect of a warm night of sleep out of the wet clothing. 

They didn’t talk much as everyone stripped out of their clothing until they were in their smallclothes bundled up under their own blankets, enjoying the warmth of the fire. He could feel a yawn pushing its way up his throat and he decided to close his eyes and try to rest.    
  
But, even as his eyes were closed, he could tell that sleep wouldn’t be coming to him easily. Not tonight, not tonight when his thoughts were screaming and he could barely try to not listen. It was too much. It was always too much, every night.    
  
He tried to focus on the soft and calm breathing of Nott beside him, on the sound of Beau’s gentle snoring, sometimes he had the feeling that if he tried hard enough, he could even hear the rustling of the leaves outside of his little hut. He knew that it was almost impossible, but even the imaginary sound calmed him. 

It was around fifteen minutes after he heard Jester mumble something in her sleep, which meant she was sleeping deeply when he heard a sigh. A sigh that was well familiar to him, almost as familiar as the voice that spoke up carefully only a few seconds after the air was released out of their lungs.    
  
“Would you turn down your thinking? It’s keeping people awake,” Molly’s voice was soft and lilting, it had an ease to it, a playful charm and Caleb immediately knew that he hadn’t meant it. He turned around to face the tiefling and when his eyes caught sight of him, he almost let his breath hitch in his throat. 

Molly was sitting upright, poking the fire gently with a long stick, his blanket hanging off of his one shoulder, revealing just enough of his chest for Caleb to be able to follow those silver scars that were illuminated by the firelight.    
  
To say that he looked beautiful like this, with the fire reflecting on his skin, would have been an understatement, also one that Caleb would never let himself make. So he tried to ignore the way that his heart rate sped up and the way that his eyes had the tendency to follow Molly’s frame, the scars and the tattoos, mixed together in a beautiful painting that could rival any masterpiece. Not like he would ever tell the tiefling that. It wasn’t in his place. Caleb was nothing against the piece of art that Mollymauk Tealeaf was. So, he ignored the way his breath caught when he saw Molly take off his shirt, or how his brain told him to reach out when Molly’s hand was close enough to grab and hold.    
  
It wasn’t in Caleb’s place. So he didn’t. 

“Why are you still awake, Mr Mollymauk?” He asked, his voice low, as to not wake the others.    
  
“I could ask you the same question, Mr Caleb,” the tiefling grinned out and Caleb was once again made painfully aware of how beautiful that grin was, how sharp. How dangerous. 

“My mind won’t be quiet,” he admitted, assuming that the tiefling was at least struggling with the same thing in a small way. 

“Oh yeah, I forgot. Man who can’t forget. It must be hard, I know that at least for myself there are many things that I found out that I did, that I would rather forget again. The peaceful bliss of ignorance has its appeal, you know?” 

Caleb only nodded, as he watched the tiefling stand up. For a moment, Caleb wasn’t sure why the other had stood up, and had started to make his way over, he wasn’t entirely sure until he watched Molly walk past him, in nothing but his smallclothes, before picking up a few more logs that Fjord had brought in earlier.    
  


The fire was dying, of course. There was no other reason why Mollymauk had made his way over, closer to Caleb, close enough for the wizard to reach out and touch Molly’s foot as he walked by if he wanted to. But, Molly didn’t walk past him. No, he stopped right in front of Caleb and looked down on the human.    
  
“You should try to get some rest, Caleb. I know it’s stupid of me to say, but you need it. I will make sure nothing happens to our friends here, I promise,” Caleb didn’t want to believe him, he didn’t want to be coddled into the false sense of safety that Molly’s words promised, but he was coddled nonetheless. He nodded before he could think about it, and that rewarded him with another bright, sharp-toothed smile.    
  
“There you go, now, sweet dreams,” Molly whispered as he did something that Caleb didn’t expect. In hindsight, he should have expected it, but still, he almost recoiled as Molly’s soft lips dropped the fainted kiss on the side of his head. On the messy red hair that was pulled back into a quick and ugly ponytail. 

  
Molly moved away quickly. Not seeming fazed in the slightest, as he made his way back over to his place and carefully placed the new log into the fire. The new embers of the fire lit up Molly’s red eyes, that fixed on Caleb as the tiefling smiled out another: “Sleep, Caleb.” before the wizard felt himself drifting into the sweet domain of rest. And if he dreamed of the feeling of warm lips pressing a soft kiss on his head, then he wouldn’t tell. 


End file.
